The Carthage College men's cross country team opens its 2011 season at the Saturday, Sept. 10 Wisconsin-Stevens Point “Four-Mile Dual” at Iverson Park in Stevens Point, Wis., beginning at 11:15 a.m.
Coach Brett Witt (684-493-1, 10 years) returns 15-of-23 letterwinners and three of his top-five finishers from last year's team. Leading the returnees are Jake Mahaffey ((Jr., Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour, 26th place at the CCIW championship), Dan August (So., Mokena, Ill./Frankfort—Lincoln-Way East, 41st place), Will Novorolsky (So., Elburn, Ill./St. Charles-North, 47th place), Grant Seiler (Greenfield, Ill./Whitnall, 51st place) and Russell Wetzel (Sr., Champaign, Ill./Central, 59th place). J.D. Fuller (Fr., Woodstock, Ill., 2010 all-state with a fourth-place finish at the Illinois High School Association Class 2A state championship) is the top newcomer.
“We return six of the 10 guys that ran in the CCIW Cross Country Championship,” points out Witt, “and five-of-seven from the NCAA regional. We will also return four top-10 runners from the 2009 season.
Josh Keck,
Alex Nelson,
Paul Smith and Russell Wetzel were injured at the end of 2010, and their return gives us a huge influx of talent and depth that we were missing last season. We also added an extremely talented freshman in
J.D. Fuller, and he could play a big part in our success this fall. I don't know exactly how good this team can be, but we have the talent and should have the depth to be significantly improved from 2010. We might surprise some people on both the conference and regional levels.”
Carthage (55-69) sixth at the last year's College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Cross Country Championship at the Saukie Golf Course in Rock Island, Ill., and 20th at the 2011 NCAA Division III Midwest Regional Championship, also at the Saukie Golf Course.
CCIW-member North Central College (7 first-place votes) was ranked first in the pre-season U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, followed by Calvin College (1 first-place vote) second, St. Lawrence University third, Haverford College fourth, Washington University (Mo.) fifth, Dickinson College sixth, Williams College seventh, the State University of New York-Geneseo eighth, Wisconsin-La Crosse ninth and Middlebury College ranked 10th. CCIW-member Wheaton College (Ill.) was ranked 15th and Augustana College (Ill.) 20th in the national poll.
North Central (Ill.) was ranked first in the pre-season Midwest Regional poll, followed by Washington University (Mo.) second, Wisconsin-La Crosse third, conference-member Wheaton (Ill.) fourth, Wisconsin-Oshkosh fifth, Wisconsin-Stevens Point sixth, conference-member Augustana College (Ill.) seventh, Wisconsin-Platteville eighth, Wisconsin-Eau Claire ninth and the University of Chicago ranked 10th.
